Has anyone wrapped a fiberglass piece with carbon fiber clothe? I recently picked up a sport bike and the tail fairing is cracked. I was going to glass the inside of it and cover it with carbon fabric. I am just not too sure of what processes to take. I know that a lot of fabricators vaccum bag and heat it to get a nicer finish. ANy help would be great. Thanks, Mark

 

No, you could do it without too much issue. First thing to do is apply a basecoat that is dark so nothing can be seen through the carbon. Next, go after some thick carbon 12k x 12k is best (that is 12000 fibers in each "strand") and has little space if any. Next pick up some epoxy from a boat supply place....West System is good stuff for this type of project. Next cut your fiber to size then lay it on the area your covering. Use some brushes to apply your resin and be careful to avoid airbubbles. Get a tool that can help you squeegie out bubbles and things...a steel roller works well or a plastic body work squeegie...just be sure not to pull the carbon sideways and aerate it worse. Do several rounds of resin/cure/resin/cure to build up material then just go to town sanding it smooth. Go through a round of wet sanding, then finish with a buff with compounds....all done.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

NICE INFO

 

tight info

 

I was always concerned about the sanding part and never getting a "glass" finish. Is it just a matter of taking your time and buffing the crap out of it?

 

If you use 12K carbon it is going to be harder to fit around complex shapes than say 3K but it really depends on the shape of the thing. Lay the fiber on dry just to get an idea of what is going to happen. Lay the fabric slightly off axis to the center of the part and it will lay down over curves better. Next epoxy will be more durable but it comes with a trade-off which is UV resistance. There are a few companies selling epoxy that has inhibitors in it but you really need to coat it with automotive clear to make it last. If you just use rein and no coating you wil probably see a change in 3-6 months in color as the epoxy degrades. I've done lots of testing of roof samples to verify this. This will depend on where you live and how much time your bike spends in the sun. Since this part is on the top side of the bike it will see the most sun. The epoxy will take impacts better but if the bikes ever went down no resin wil be safe anyway. I have noticed on my overlays that epoxy takes much longer to sand flat than polyester. I would say I can get the poly down about twice as fast. Also a polyester resin will hold up in the sun longer than most epoxies. If you decide to use a polyester resin don't forget to add sanding agent to the last coat or it will always be tacky which makes sanding impossible. With epoxy you don't have to worry about this. The backside of parts made with polyester resin will only fully cure by adding a wax additive to the last coat. In your case it would not be the backside but the front side since there is no female mold. What happens is the wax in the additive is mixed in with the resin and catalyst and applied just like normal and the wax then rises to the surface and seals off the resin from the air and then a full crosslink can occur. If you accidentaly add the sanding agent you will have to sand and clean the part before adding any more resin on top. The cool thing about polyester is that you can add a layer of resin and then let it sit for a long time and not have to prep the backside before adding more resin. If you let epoxy sit too long it will always need to be sanded before ading more resin. On an overlay when your adding several layers over a day or two it easier not to have to sand it after each coat. The styrene in the resin just eats into the surface and connects with the last coat of resin. As far as cost I can get a gallong of polyester for about $40 plus shipping vs a gallong of epoxy and hardener is more like $100+. Here's an interesting post from my forum: http://www.racingcomposites.net/unt?id=465 It shows a guy in the UK skninning a part. This is basically an overlay using a vacuum bag but it's neat to see what people come up with. If your shape is eally crazy this might work for you. I have never tried it but take a look.